Virginia shifts focus to selling tickets and bowl practices

Before last weekend, Virginia coach Mike London's favorite memory in connection with the Chick-fil-A Bowl may have been one he had to enjoy vicariously through his brother, Paul.

In 1995, Paul was a starting cornerback for the U.Va. team that defeated Georgia 34-27 in the Peach Bowl, which the game was known by in '95 before the chicken fast food restaurant came on board. The game was won on the strength of Pete Allen's 83-yard kickoff return for a touchdown with 57 seconds left.

Now, even before he leads this year's U.Va. team to Atlanta to play Dec. 31 against Auburn (7-5), Mike has his very own special Chick-fil-A moment to store away, thanks to an unexpected phone call last Sunday from U.Va. athletic director Craig Littlepage.

"I asked Mike, 'How would you like to go to Atlanta?'" said Littlepage on Friday at a press conference in Charlottesville where U.Va. formally accepted the Chick-fil-A Bowl invitation. "There was kind of a silence there. I don't know if he thought I was just asking him to go for fundraising…When he probably realized what I was talking about, there was a little bit of a 'whoop' and a cheer."

Before Virginia Tech was selected as an at-large to play in the Sugar Bowl, it looked like U.Va. (8-4) was probably headed for the Music City Bowl, which explains Mike's surprise when Littlepage called him with the news about the Chick-fil-A Bowl.

"We had a practice that afternoon and early evening, and I brought (the team) all up and I said, 'Listen, fellas, truly, honestly, I don't know where we're going to go'" said Mike, who, like Paul, is a Bethel High graduate.

U.Va. is about to start the work portion of the bowl lead-up. After spending this week focusing on getting the scout team and redshirted players some extra work, preparation for Auburn will begin Sunday. Coach London anticipates having 16-to-18 practices devoted to Auburn, including two days when the team will practice twice.

While the team readies itself for the bowl trip, one of Littlepage's responsibilities has been making sure U.Va. sells its allotment of 18,000 tickets to the game. As of late Friday morning, Littlepage said U.Va. had sold 11,371 tickets.

"I anticipate every one of the 18,000 will be sold," Littlepage said.

U.Va. has a history of taking a lot of fans to the bowl game in Atlanta, which the Cavaliers played in to conclude the '84, '95 and '98 seasons. In '95 and '98, U.Va. brought more than 20,000 fans to Atlanta.

Though U.Va. has struggled to sell tickets to its own home games in 61,500-seat Scott Stadium of late, averaging 47,940 fans per home game this season after pulling in an average of 45,459 fans to home games last season, Chick-fil-A Bowl president and CEO Gary Stokan is optimistic U.Va. can once again bring fans to Atlanta.

"I don't think there's any doubt between the students, between the alumni in Atlanta and between the fans in Virginia and elsewhere, because Virginia is a national institution, that they'll flock to Atlanta and sell out the rest of their tickets," said Stokan at Friday's press conference, adding Auburn has sold about 14,000 of its allotment of 16,000 tickets.

Auburn will bring a team to Atlanta that will have a new man in charge of calling defensive plays. Ted Roof, who had been Auburn's defensive coordinator since 2009, was hired Thursday to be the defensive coordinator at Central Florida.

Auburn struggled this season on defense, where it's 45th in the nation in passing defense (211 yards per game), 78th in total defense (405.8 yards per game), 79th in scoring defense (29.3 points per game) and 99th in rushing defense (194.8 yards per game).

Auburn was actually uninspiring on the offensive side, too. It's 104th in the nation in total offense (328.2 yards per game), which is a huge drop from last season when former Auburn quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner Cam Newton led the Tigers to the nation's seventh-best total offense (499.2 yards) on the way to a national championship.

London thinks Auburn coach Gene Chizik, who was the former defensive coordinator at Central Florida ('98-2001) and Auburn ('02-04) and co-defensive coordinator at Texas ('05 and '06), will call defensive formations in the bowl game.

"I don't anticipate much of a change from a standpoint of philosophy, but I do know there is something they have to deal with from that standpoint," London said. "They're very fast and athletic. We will put 100 percent time and effort into the game-planning for them this Sunday after we take care of another aspect of developing our team."